A lawyer who helped Kalshi win a key court docket battle towards the federal authorities now helps the federal authorities shield Kalshi from state attorneys normal.
Yaakov Roth, a former Jones Day white shoe lawyer who represented Kalshi within the landmark KalshiEX v. Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC) case, appeared by identify on federal complaints filed yesterday towards Illinois, Arizona, and Connecticut.
His present title is now Principal Deputy Assistant Legal professional Basic, Division of Justice (DOJ) Civil Division. These federal lawsuits argue that state playing legal guidelines ought to have little jurisdiction over prediction markets because of the CFTC’s oversight.
In essence, the fits are makes an attempt by the CFTC to guard Kalshi from state-level actions.
Roth joined the DOJ in February 2025. He had already secured a pivotal victory in late 2024 when the DC Circuit denied the CFTC’s emergency keep towards Kalshi’s occasion contracts contingent on US elections. In January 2025, Roth argued the complete attraction, then joined DOJ. The CFTC later dropped its attraction towards Kalshi in Could 2025 in a victory for Roth.
The Biden-era CFTC disapproved of Kalshi’s proposed congressional management election contracts in 2023. Kalshi then sued the CFTC, difficult that call. By Could 2025, the Trump-era CFTC voluntarily dropped the commissioners’ attraction.
Now on the US authorities’s DOJ as a substitute of Kalshi’s legislation agency Jones Day, Roth has been discovered on a workforce on the opposite facet of the “v.” (versus) separator in lawsuit titles involving Kalshi.
The Kalshi-government lawyer pipeline
Roth is just not the one former Kalshi lawyer to land a authorities job.
Eliezer Mishory, Kalshi’s former Basic Counsel lawyer, stepped down in March 2025 to take a DOGE-linked function on the SEC, the place his title is Senior Advisor to the Chairman.
Mishory beforehand labored on the CFTC underneath Brian Quintenz.
Quintenz, a former CFTC commissioner, has sat on Kalshi’s board since 2021.
Trump nominated Quintenz as Chairman of the CFTC in February 2025. Nevertheless, his nomination was withdrawn in September 2025 amid mounting considerations, similar to paperwork obtained by Freedom of Data Act (FOIA) requests revealing his incoming workers searching for CFTC details about Kalshi’s opponents or the Winklevoss twins lobbying Trump instantly towards his candidacy.
Kalshi additionally has one other robust connection to the White Home through Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr. He has served as an advisor to Kalshi and as an advisory board member of Polymarket; moreover, he’s an investor in Polymarket by means of a enterprise capital agency, 1789 Capital.
The federal authorities that sued Kalshi now cushions it from states
Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour celebrated Roth’s DOJ appointment on LinkedIn. “Without Yaakov Roth’s legal guidance and leadership, prediction markets in America wouldn’t be where they are today,” Mansour wrote. He known as Roth “arguably one of the best appellate litigators in the country” and added, “We couldn’t be more excited for him and his next journey at the DOJ.”
Certainly.
The three state-level lawsuits contain cease-and-desist letters to Kalshi, Polymarket, and different prediction market operators.
Arizona went furthest. It filed 20 prison costs towards Kalshi in March 2026, together with 4 counts of election wagering.
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig, a Trump appointee, declared in February that the company would “no longer sit idly by” whereas states challenged its authority. His Innovation Advisory Committee consists of executives from Kalshi, Polymarket, FanDuel, and DraftKings. Its 35 members are nearly fully trade executives.
Sports activities betting accounted for almost all of Kalshi’s buying and selling quantity in current months. The corporate reported over $1 billion in Tremendous Bowl buying and selling quantity alone. States name these buying and selling contracts playing. The Trump administration calls them non-gambling derivatives or prediction markets; particularly, it considers them commodity occasion contracts.
The query might be not whether or not the revolving door between Kalshi and federal businesses spins. It’s whether or not any lawyer, or anybody, plans to cease it.
